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Details below of an unusual Travertine tiled kitchen floor in Greet, Gloucestershire where we were asked to restore the appearance of the tiles and leave a natural as opposed to shiny finish. Greet is a lovely little village at the edge of the Cotsworlds and famous for being a short walk to Winchcombe station on the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway which is run by volunteers and often has steam trains running on its line.

Burnishing a Travertine Tiled Floor

Travertine responds well to burnishing which is an abrasive cleaning method as opposed to chemical. Basically, it involves the application of several different grades of diamond encrusted pad to the stone lubricated with a small amount of water. You run the pad over each tile and then give the floor a quick rinse before moving on to the next pad, I started with the first of the four burnishing pads which is a coarse 400 grit pad that designed to grind away the dirt and old sealer on the surface of the floor.

After applying the first pad, I moved my way through the medium 800 and fine 1500 grit pads to gradually restore the appearance of the Travertine. Normally I would of also applied the fourth pad in the series but if you recall the customer did not wanted a polished appearance so I stopped after the 1500 grit pad.

The pads work well on tile but struggle to reach recessed grout so to clean that I applied a medium dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean and scrubbed it into the grout lines manually using a stiff grout brush. Once I was happy with the appearance of the grout the soiled cleaning solution was rinsed away with water and extracted using a wet vacuum leaving the floor to dry off overnight.

Sealing a Travertine Tiled Floor

The next day I returned to finish the floor and first task was to run a Tan buffing pad over the floor to ensure the floor was clean and any residue from the diamond pad burnishing had been removed.

Once I was happy with the tiles I proceeded to apply two coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow which is an impregnating sealer that protects from within by occupying the pores in the stone so dirt can penetrate and lifts the natural colours in the stone in the process.
I should mention that normally only one coat of Colour Grow is usually required to seal Travertine however on this occasion the stone was quite porous.

The colours in the Travertine were so much more vibrant after the job was completed and the customer was happy with the result, although personally I would have preferred to have applied the fourth pad to build up the shine however I delivered what the customer had asked for so I was happy with that.

This customer in Newton Heath, just outside of Manchester, used to have a beautiful polished travertine floor on most of the ground floor and bathroom but over time it was getting duller and duller as the polish became worn down, not helped I might add by their choice of cleaning products which were not appropriate for this type of floor. Additionally, numerous cracks and holes had appeared in their floor and worried it was going to get worse they decided to call in some professional help and get the whole floor fully restored.

When I got the call I went over to the house to take a in-depth look at the problem and recommended that the floor was burnished using diamond pads of different grades. They also asked if I could apply the same treatment to the travertine bathroom floor and shower cubicle as well, which I was very happy to do so we agreed a price and scheduled a date to do the work.

Dull Travertine Floor Cleaning/Polishing

To start the burnishing process, I applied the Coarse 400 grit burnishing pad to the floor using rotary machine and water as lubrication to break down and remove any old sealer from the stone. When finished with first burnishing pad I removed all the soiled water left on floor with a wet vacuum. This removal process of soiled residue was repeated after each use of a burnishing pad.

Next, I moved on to the Medium 800 grit pad which is less coarse, but still rough enough to break down layers of ingrained dirt. I followed this up with the application of a Fine 1500 grit pad, which started to smooth down the rough areas of the surface to prepare the floor for a final polish with 3000 grit. However before moving straight on to the final of the four pads, I took the time to carefully fill in the all the small cracks and holes in the stone, before leaving the floor to dry until the next day.

Sealing Travertine Floor

The next morning, I returned to the property to finish off the floor restoration. As soon as I arrived I used a damp tester to make sure the floor was completely dry.

All was well so I went over the floor with the final Very Fine 3000 grit burnishing pad, this time without any water lubricant, to finally achieve a high quality polished finish.

For polished floors, we recommend the use an impregnating sealer that penetrates the pores of the stone rather than sitting on the surface of the floor, as this ensures the quality of the polish isn’t damaged. With this in mind I applied Tile Doctor Colour Grow to seal the tiles. This is a colour enhancing sealer that provides durable surface protection and allows the surface to breathe whilst enhancing the natural colours in the stone. At this point it’s important that any sealer that doesn’t penetrate the stone is removed by polishing it off with a cloth.

After this I went on to repeat the cleaning, polishing and sealing process on their Travertine Tiled shower cubicle but I’ll detail that in a separate post.

Needless to say, the customer was very happy with the work carried out on the floor and shower cubicle and recommended me to his neighbour straight away.

Quite often our customers will be new property owners who have inherited fantastic tiled floors that are in need of smartening up. Typically the previous owners struggled to maintain the floor which is not unusual when it comes to high quality natural stone such as Travertine and this was the case with this Travertine tiled floor that I recently restored at a property near Woodhall Spa, on the southern edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds.

The customer not only needed a deep clean for the tiles and grout which had become dirty and discoloured over time, but also needed for many of the small holes caused by the natural process of pitting to be filled to give the Travertine tiles a smooth and polished finish. Finally, the floor would need a fresh seal to protect it and make it easier to cleangoing forward.

Cleaning and Repairing a Pitted Travertine Tiled Floor

To begin the restoration, I applied Tile Doctor Pro-Clean to the floor, which is our reliable high alkaline cleaner designed for use on stone floors, left it to soak in and break down the dirt and then used our hot pressure Rotovaccleaning system to clean the tiles. The Rotovac is an expensive machine but makes light work of the job by deep cleaning and scrubbing the stone whilst rinsing and extracting away all of the soiled cleaning residue at the same time. It allows us to get deep into the pores of the tile and grout to eradicate ingrained dirt and stains.

I then worked through our four-stage diamond encrusted burnishing pad system which hones and polishes the surface of the tiles with excellent results. Each of the four pads is applied in turn, moving from a coarse grit all the way to a Very Fine grit.

Once I was happy with the condition of the floor it was time to deal with the holes in the Travertine by applying a two-part colour matched resin to fill the small and large holes mentioned earlier.After completing the cleaning and filling was completed I left the tiles to dry off completely overnight aided with air movers to speed up the drying process.

Ensuring the floor is bone dry before sealing is important as I needed to seal the tiles the next day, and a small amount of excess moisture can cloud the sealer and damage its performance.

Sealing a Travertine Tiled Floor

When I came back the next day I tested the floor for moisture to confirm it was dry before applying two coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow, which is an impregnating sealer that intensifies and enhances the natural shades in the Travertine while also providing it with protection against dirt and stains.

With the restoration complete I left the customer with a bottle of Tile Doctor Neutral Tile Cleaner for regular future maintenance, along with an aftercare leaflet. We recommend this product for the regular cleaning of sealed tiles as the neutral pH will help to maximise the life of the sealer and not erode it like many acid cleaning products.

I think you will agree the floor now looks much better, certainly the customer was very happy with the work and left the following feedback:

“Phil and his colleague worked their magic to transform our tired looking, grimy Travertine floors into bright, shiny new look floors. Thank you so much.”

If you want a polished stone floor to keep its appearance, then it will need a regular maintenance plan in place, without it the stone will lose its polish and start to look dull and un-inviting which was the story with this Travertine tiled floor installed throughout much of the grout floor of this house in the village of Great Wilbraham near Cambridge.

I was able to find out from the owner that the floor was last treated six years ago with Lithofin Stain Stop which is a solvent based impregnating sealer which like all sealers will wear off after a few years. Naturally this depends on the amount of wear the floor receives and what tends to happen is this process occurs more rapidly in the high traffic areas leading to an uneven appearance.

The best course of action now would be to remove what was left of the sealer and re-polish and seal the floor.

Filling Holes in Travertine

During my inspection of the floor I had noticed a number of irregular holes in one of the Travertine tiles which needed filling with a colour matching filler; this worked out quite well and as you can see from the photographs below the result looked entirely natural.

Stripping the Sealer from Travertine Floor Tiles

During the application of the first coarse pad we also added a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean combined with NanoTech Ultra-Clean to aid the removal of sealer residues from the pores of the Travertine. The floor was then rinsed and the soiled solution extracted using a wet vacuum.

With the sealer remove we were now able to concentrate on building up the polish on the stone by applying the remaining pads from Medium, Fine through to Very Fine, each lubricated with a little water and ensuring to rinse in-between the application of each pad.

Sealing Travertine Floor Tiles

With the floor now clean and the polish restored the last step was to protect it so it would keep its appearance for as long as possible. There are a number of solutions for this but for a long durable shine I opted to work Tile Doctor Shine Powder into the Travertine.

The powder is applied liberally to the floor and then ground in using a slow speed floor rotary machine fitted with a white or tan buffing pad lubricated with water.

The shine on the floor has now been restored and the client has a
beautiful and durable finish to their Travertine tiles.

This customer had some real difficulty in getting their fantastic Travertine tiled kitchen area looking as good as it should. The cleaning methods they had previously employed were unable to prevent the tiles from appearing dull, and the customer was also unable to deal with the displeasing marks and small cracks damaging the stone.

Keen to get the floor back to looking its best, the customer called me down to their property, which overlooks the beautiful countryside area of Ashbourne, to see what could be done to restore the tiles.

Burnishing a Dull Travertine Tiled Floor

Upon my arrival at the property, I assessed the situation and resolved that the best way to restore the polish and general appearance of the floor was to use a process known as burnishing. The burnishing process, which involves the application of four diamond encrusted polishing pads of varying grit, works to grind away ingrained dirt while smoothing and polishing rough surfaces. Most commonly we use burnishing to restore the shine to Limestone and Marble tiles, but it can be used on most types of natural stone floor where a deep polish is required.

To start the process, I applied the Coarse 400 grit burnishing pad to the floor using a small amount of water as lubrication in order to break down and remove any old sealer from the stone. Once this had been done across the entirety of the floor, I removed any soiled water with a wet-vac machine; this removal of soiled residue was repeated after each use of a burnishing pad.

Next, I moved on to the Medium 800 grit pad which is less coarse than the 400 grit, but still rough enough still to break down layers of ingrained dirt. I followed this up with the application of a Fine 1500 grit pad, which started to smooth down the rough areas of the surface to prepare the floor for a final polish with an even finer burnishing pad later on. Before moving straight on to the final of the four pads, I took the time to carefully fill in the all of the small cracks and holes in the stone, before leaving the floor to dry until the next day.

Sealing a Travertine Tiled Floor

The next morning, I returned to the property to finish off the floor restoration. As soon as I arrived I used a damp tester to make sure the floor was completely dry. Noticing a number of small damp spots, I opted to use my heat gun to speed up the drying process.

Once the floor was completely dry, I used the Very Fine 3000 burnishing pad – the last of the four – without any lubricant to finally achieve a high quality polished finish. For polished floors it is recommended to use an impregnating sealer that penetrates into the pores of the stone rather than sitting on the surface of the floor, as this ensures the quality of the polish isn’t damaged.

As such I opted to use Tile Doctor Colour Grow to seal the tiles. This is a colour intensifying sealer that provides durable surface protection and allows the surface to breathe whilst enhancing the natural colours in the stone. It’s important that any sealer that doesn’t penetrate into the stone is removed by polishing it off with a cloth.

After completing the seal, I went over the floor for a final time with the 3000 grit diamond burnishing pad to leave a smooth and shiny polished finish. Needless to say that the customer was very happy with result as they had never before been able to get the floor looking this good!

When we arrived at this property in Ayrshire, Edinburgh, it appeared as though the owner’s Travertine tiled floor was in relatively decent condition.

On closer inspection, however, we could see that the grout lines were quite dirty and, while there was still a visible shine to the surface, it had become cloudy, likely due to a lack of sufficient maintenance.

This was a big concern for the owner, and so they contacted me to see what I could do to remedy the situation.

Cleaning and Burnishing a Dirty Travertine Floor

After agreeing with the customer to undertake the work, I travelled to the property in Ayrshire, a county located in the South West of Scotland, on the shores of the Firth of Clyde.

Upon arrival, I set about using a set of large diamond encrusted burnishing pads fitted to a rotary machine to strip the tiles of old surface sealer, break down the layers of dirt, and restore the polished shine. The Tile Doctor burnishing system comprises four main pads of varying grit: I began by applying the Coarse grit pad, before moving on to Medium, Fine and Extra Fine to gradually achieve the desired level of polish.

After burnishing the main surface of the floor, I used smaller, 6-inch pads to pay particular attention to the edges and corners. Then, to complete the cleaning process, I scrubbed a strong solution of Tile Doctor Pro Clean into the grout limes to remove ingrained dirt and stains. I also noticed some holes in the grout as well as some completely missing, and also promptly replaced these with new grout.

Sealing a Travertine Floor

The floor was then left overnight in order to allow it to time to dry completely. In the morning I returned to the house and opted to give the floor a final polish with the extra fine burnishing pad before sealing.

My choice of sealer was Tile Doctor Colour Grow, which was applied in two separate coats to protect the floor against wear and tear, while also accentuating the natural shades in the stone thanks to the sealer’s colour intensifying formula.

I’m pleased to say that my customer’s worries about this Travertine tiled floor have now been put to rest. The results were very pleasing for both myself and the customer, and I made sure to offer some general tile maintenance advice before being on my way. Another happy customer.

This Travertine tiled kitchen floor had been laid around five years previously in a house in Didsbury and now most of the sealer had worn down making the floor difficult to clean effectively. This resulted in the tiles looking continually dirty and a few of the tiles had cracked which you can see in the photograph below.

Maintaining Travertine Tiles

To start off with i scrubbed Tile Doctor Pro-Clean into all the grout lines with a stiff brush in order to get them as clean as possible followed by a rinse with water which was extracted using a wet vacuum.

The next step was to strip the Travertine of any remaining sealer and dirt using a set of four Diamond encrusted burnishing pads which come in a number of grades and are applied from coarse to extra fine with a little water to help lubricate.

I used the first three pads from coarse to fine rinsing between each pad to restore the polished finish of the stone but stopped before applying the final pad so I could fill all the cracked tiles with a resin filler in a matching shade. Once the filler had dried I gave the floor a final polish with the fourth extra fine burnishing pad and gave the floor a final rinse at the end to make sure the floor was clean before sealing.

Sealing Travertine Tiles

Once the floor was dry it was sealed using a couple of coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow which is an impregnating sealer that occupies the pores in the stone so dirt cannot become ingrained there. This particular sealer also enhances the natural colours in the stone.

After the final polish and sealing the cracked areas had blended in very nicely and the customer was very pleased with the overall result.